Various methods have been employed for making concrete tiles, such as concrete roof tiles. The particular methods used depend on such things as the shape of the tiles being formed. Typically, wet concrete is dispensed onto a moving pallet (a.k.a. “mold”), following which the pallet is passed under a roller and slipper to form and then shape the tile. A knife assembly chops and shapes the opposite edges of the tile. The wet concrete is cured and then removed from the pallet to provide the completed tile.
In a particular known method of making concrete roof tiles, a conveyor is used to transport the wet concrete from either a continuous mixer or a batch mixer to a making head assembly disposed above a conveyor containing a succession of moving pallets, arranged end-to-end. The pallets define the general shape of the tiles to be formed. As each pallet passes within the making head assembly, wet concrete is dispensed onto the pallet, with the help of a rotating roller which meters the concrete onto the pallet and compresses the wet concrete to a desired thickness. The pallet is then passed beneath a slipper which engages the wet concrete and has a profile selected to provide the concrete with a desired cross-sectional configuration. A knife assembly chops the continuous ribbon of concrete formed on the end-to-end succession of pallets to define the individual tiles and to shape the edges thereof. The pallets with the wet concrete extruded, compressed, shaped and chopped thereon are then separated and advanced to a racker, where the pallets are loaded onto racks for transport to a curing facility. The curing facility typically comprises an oven in which the tiles are heated at a desired temperature and for a desired period of time to cure the concrete. Following that, each concrete tile is removed from its supporting pallet to thereby provide the completed concrete tiles.